King Leopold II and the Congo Free State

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King Leopold II of Belgium (1835-1909) was the reigning king of Belgium from 1865 until his death in 1909. He managed the throne after the death of his father, Leopold I. He was born under the original name of Louis Philippe Marie Victor in Brussels. He joined the Belgium armed forces at a relatively early age and, in 1853, he took as his wife the Archduke of Austria’s daughter, Maria Henrietta. He became widely noted as a philanthropist, his work earning him worldwide fame. Upon his death, Leopold’s nephew, Albert I, succeeded him to the throne of Belgium.

The famous travels of Sir Henry Stanley in search of Dr. Livingstone through the unexplored regions of Africa caught the attention of Leopold. He hired…show more content…

He had his own piece of “that magnificent African cake.” The newly named Congo Free State was handed over to Leopold essentially as his personal country. With such authority, he easily exploited the natives and their abundance of natural resources.

The presence of ivory, rubber, copper, and diamonds in the Congo only whetted Leopold’s appetite for wealth. He sent Sir Stanley deeper and deeper into the unexplored jungles in search of profitable resources. However, his treatment of the native population was not quite in line with his philanthropic reputation. He extorted the indigenous peoples with often called “barbaric” methods. Leopold strove to further develop the Congo nation by establishing an exportation network which included the building of river ports and roads into the interior of the nation. The expeditions proved to be quite successful for the Belgian king. Some figures report an income of approximately ₤30,000 per year earned through his ventures in the Congo.

However, the rest of Europe began to take notice of the inhumane methods utilized by Leopold after his African state grew larger. In addition, the financial returns started to wane after the initial stages of colonization. By 1908, the Congo project had overstretched its financial resources and Leopold was not able to manage it independently. He began to sell parts of the state like stock in a corporation. This idea…

Over the course of human history, many believe that the “Congo Free State”, which lasted from the 1880s to the early 1900s, was one of the worst colonial states in the age of Imperialism and was one of the worst humanitarian disasters over time. Brutal methods of collecting rubber, which led to the deaths of countless Africans along with Europeans, as well as a lack of concern from the Belgian government aside from the King, combined to create the most potent example of the evils of colonialism in…

King Leopold and the Belgian Congo
It is widely debated why exactly King Leopold decided to conquer the Congo, but the general consensus seems to be that it was out of the belief that “the highlands of the Congo may be as rich in gold as the mountains of the western slope of the American Continent” (Stead). In the mid-1870s, the King hired Henry Stanley, who was familiar with many parts of Africa, to help him go about conquering. During the following years Stanley stayed in Africa, talking various…

King Leopold II and Joseph Stalin were both tyrants who ruled during different times in history. Both men ruled their respective territories almost solely autonomously and exploited, mutilated, and murdered the people who they should have been protecting. The atrocities committed by these are remembered as some of the most horrific crimes committed during their respective centuries of rule. It is important to understand that these men did not begin their rein with the intent on killing millions…

King Leopold II and Belgian Imperialism
In 1865, King Leopold II succeeded his father to the thrown of Belgium and thus began one of the most brutal and insensitive periods of imperialism ever to exist. From manipulative treaties to straight forward intimidation, Leopold dominated his empire like no other. He was cruel, deceptive, and downright evil, yet it took the world over twenty years to recognize this. The record of King Leopold’s atrocity is an interesting account of how…

and 1908, Belgium’s Leopold II ruled Congo, a region in central Africa, as his personal colony, exploiting the resources and inhabitants for his own gain. Leopold allowed and encouraged Europeans and other Westerners to enter Congo and set up companies whose primary purpose was to gather rubber, which was abundant but difficult to get to in the Congo, using the Congolese as the laborers for the Europeans. Rubber gathering in Congo brutally exploited the inhabitants of the Congo, while at the same…

The violent and forced rule of the Congo is a horrific time in African history. The time period beginning with Henry Morton Stanley's first exploration to the Congo, and King Leopold's desire of this area, had been a nightmare for the people of the Congo. The civilizing mission to the Congo not only resulted in the killing of thousands of people but also the destruction of a culture. The two articles, 'Belgian Colonialism in the Congo', and the letter by George Washington Williams, are just two…

King Leopolds Ghost
King Leopold's Ghost tells a story of the Belgian King Leopold II and his misrule of an African colony, named (at the time) the Congo Free State. It is a wild and unpleasant story of a man's capacity for evil and the peculiar manifestation of it.
In telling this story, Hochschild does a wonderful job of giving detailed descriptions, especially of the colorful individuals involved, both good and bad. His analysis of the situation is very solid, starting with the movement…

King Leopold II of Belgium’s speech delivered to missionaries traveling to the Congo describes an attempt by the king to justify the subjugation of the Congolese people for the benefit of the Belgian economy. King Leopold directed his speech to the Catholic missionaries who were planning on working with the indigenous population of the Congo in 1883. Leopold, blinded by racism and imperialist greed, stresses that the missionaries should selectively interpret their Bible teachings in a manner that…

Book Review of King Leopold's Ghost, by Adam Hochschild
What some have considered to be the first international scandal of
the modern era took place in the Congo from 1890 until 1910. King Leopold
II of Belgium was at the head of this so-called scandal. Although Europe
and the rest of the world seemed to have forgotten the victims of these
crimes, there is a considerable amount of material to use when attempting to
recreate the horror that took place in Leopold's Congo. This is exactly…

Chakravartty
4/16/15
King Leopold’s Ghost Response Paper
With an estimated death toll of ten million people, King Leopold’s conquest of the Congo is recognized as one of the bloodiest holocausts in human history. The sheer brutality of this gruesome process triggered the world’s first international human rights movement. However, unlike the holocaust of Jews committed by the Nazi regime in mid-twentieth century Germany, the Belgian extermination of the Congolese has gone largely forgotten. In King Leopold’s…